Locomotive.



N. T. McKEE.

LOCOMOTIVE.

APPLICATION HLED SEPT. 13. 1918.

1 ,298,070. Patented Mar. 25, 1919.

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NEAL 7; Ma IVE}; Emma/M101 21% HAS" 611m N. T. McKEE.

LOCOMOTIVE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 13 was.

1 298,6779 Patented Mar. 1919.

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IVE/11.4 Mwrgief a mwwwm UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NEAL '1. IVIQKEE, 0F YONKERS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO LOCOMOTIVESUPERHEATER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

LOCOMOTIVE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented DIa 25 1919 Application filedSeptember 13, 1918. Serial No. 253,950.

citizen of the United States, and resident of Yonkers, N. Y., haveinvented certainrnew and'useful Improvements in Locomotives, of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to locomotives and particularly to the steam supplyfor the auxilaries such as the air pump, the water pump, the turbine forthe headlight dynamo, and theturbine or other engine for feedingpulverized or other fuel. Under conditions of train operation such asobtain today the steam consumption in these auxiliaries amounts to aconsiderable fraction of the entire amount of steam developed by theboiler; and while the main engines of the locomotives are supplied withsuperheated steam and all the benefits of superheated steam are,therefore, obtained for. them, no practicable way has yet been devisedof making the benefits of superheated steam available for theauxilaries. I am aware of attempts to do this but to my knowledge theyhave all had such objectionable features connected with them that theyhave never gone into practical use. It would be a comparatively simplematter to use superheated steam for these auxiliaries, if-they wereoperated only during periods when the locomotive is in motion and steamis being supplied to the superheater, but they are called on to work.also when the steam to the main engines is shut off and as in thealmost universal arrangement used on locomotives the throttle shuttingoff the steam supply to the main engines is located between thesuperheater and the boiler and not between the superheater and theengine, no superheated steam is available for use in the auxiliaries atsuch times. It therefore becomes necessary to make available anothersupply of steam during periods when the throttle is closed and the mainpurpose of my invention is to make provision for such a supplementary.supply by means of an inexpensive and reliable mechanism,

The invention will readily be understood from the accompanying drawingsin which my invention is shown, by way of illustration, in connectionwith the steam supply to the air pump and where Figure 1 gives in sideelevation a view of the locomotive with my inventioii attached, certainparts being broken away to give "betterview, other parts being insection and still others omitted; Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional Viewof the superheater header of Fig. 1, this section being taken on line2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows a view similar to Fig. 1' of a modification;Fig. 4 is a detailed sectional view of a differential piston valve usedin this form; Fig. 5 is a sectional view of still another modification;Fig. 6 is an enlarged detailed view of a part of the mechanism of Fig.5.

-To describe'first the form of my invention illustrated in Figs. 1 and2, steam is supplied to chamber 1 of the superheater header 2, from thesteam dome 3 of the boiler by means of the dry pipe 4, the entrance towhichis controlled by the throttle 5. This throttle is operated in theusual way by means of the throttle rod 6 which extends into the enginecab. The steam which has been delivered to chamber 1 of the superheaterheader leaves this chamber by means of the superheater units 7, in whichit is superheated and by which it is delivered to chamber 8 of theheader 2. From this chamber 8 it leaves by means of the pipes 9 (onlyone of which shows in the figure) and is, by these pipes, delivered tothe valve chests 10.

Engine 11 of the air pump receives its steam through the pipe 12. In theusual arrangement this steam pipe 12 connects directly to the turret 13which supplies it with saturated steam from the boiler. my improvedarrangement this turret 13 also supplies steam pipe 12 with saturatedsteam doing so by means of the pipe 14 and the T 15, but in addition tothis I supply this T 15 with superheated steam by means of the pipe 16,which as will be evident from Figs. 1 and 2, is tapped into thesuperheated chamber 8 of the header 2.

The pump governor 17 shuts off the steam supply to the air pump inresponse to pressure from the air tank 18 transmitted to it through thepipe 19. This is the usual arrangement and is not 'modified' A governor20 similar in structure to the governor :17 is inserted in the saturatedsteam line 14:, operating to close off this saturated steam supply inresponse to pressure existing in the steam line 16 transmitted to itthrough the pipe 21. The line 16 has, in addition, a check valve 22permitting the flow of steam toward the air pump but preventing it inthe opposite direction, and a globe valve 23.

The operation of this device may be briefly described as follows:

lVhen the throttle 5 is open and steam pressure therefor exists in thesuperheated pipe line 16, the governor 20 will close off the saturatedsteam, supply through the pipe 1% and the air pump 11 will therefore beoperated by superheated steam from chamber 8 of the superheater header.The governor 20 is adjusted so it shuts off the saturated steam supplywhen the pressure in 16 is suflicient to run the air pump, and to openitat other times. When the throttle 5- is closed, the pressure in 16 and21 will fall oil and as a consequence the governor 20 will open and thesaturated steam from port 18 will reach the pump through pipe 14:,governor 20. T 15 and pipe 12. The check valve 22 will prevent thissteam frombacking up into the superheater header, reaching the mainvalve chest 10 and thus causing the engine to move. lVhen the requiredpressure in air tank 18 has been reached the governoi 17 will operate inthe usual way and shut off the steam supply whether it be saturated orsuperheated.

It will thus be seen that I supply the air pump with superheated steamwhenever such supply is available and make adequate provision t'orsupplying it with saturated steam at other times.

In Figs. 3 and 4: is shown a modified form of my apparatus in which adifferential piston valve is employed for shutting off the saturatedsteam when superheated steam is available and for opening it up at othertimes. From the turret 13 pipe 1i carries saturated steam to the valveand easing 2a. The steam supply by this pipe exerts pressure upon thesmall piston 25 of the differential piston valve 26, while the largerpiston 27 is subject to pressure of superheated steam delivered to thecasing 2% by pipe 16. This differential piston valve 26 reciprocateswithin the appropriately shaped chamber 24. In the position shown inFig. 4 the differential piston valve is seen to shut of]? the outlet '28and to uncover outlet 29. The outlet 28 delivers steam to pipe 29 and bymeans of T 30 and pipe 12 to the pump while the outlet 29 delivers steamto pipe 31, which also connects to T 30 and so is also able to deliversteam to the pump. Pipe 31 has in it a check valve permitting flowtoward but prohibiting flow from the pump. In the position shown in Fig.1 superheated steam delivered from pipe 16 to pipe 31 and so to thepump, while the saturated steam supply is cut oil. lVith the valve 26 inthe position to the extreme right, it will be seen that saturated steamwould be supplied while superheated steam would be cut off.

The difierential' piston is used in this valve so that whenever bothsteam supplies are available the valve will assume such a position thatthe saturated steam is cut off. At times when the engine throttle isclosed and no superheated steam is available, there will be no pressureon the piston 27 and the valve will, therefore, assume the position tothe extreme right and the pump will be supplied with saturated steam.

Still another form of my device is illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. Heresuperheated steam is delivered to a valve casing 33 through pipe 16 andsaturated steam is delivered to it through pipe 14. From the casing 83the steam leaves for the air pump through pipe 12. In the interior ofthis valve casing there is a piston valve '34. In

one of its positionsthe one shown in the figurecommunication isestablished between the saturated steam supply 1 1 and pipe 12, while inits opposite position this communication would be cut off andcommunication established. between pipes 16 and 12. The position of thisvalve 3 1 is determined by throttle lever 35. This throttle lever has onit a small clip 36 which engages the end of the valve rod 37. This valverod 37 is secured coaxially with the valve 34 and extends through thestufling box 38. In Fig. 5 the innermost position of the throttle leveris indicated in dotted lines and in this posi tion the clip 36, engagingvalve rod 37, gives the valve 34.- the position indicated in Fig. 6.When the engineer begins to open the throttle or in other words pull thethrottle lever outward into the position indicated in full lines in Fig.5, valve 34: will, at once, be given the opposite position from thatindicated in Fig. 6. lVhen it has reached this outermost position theclip will readily disengage its hold upon the end of the rod 37 and fromthen on the motion of the throttle lever does not affect the position ofvalve 34; until the engineer closes the throttle. lVhen this occurs, assoon as the clip 36 again engages the rod 37 the continued inward motionof the throttle lever will give valve 34; its innermost position asindicated in Fig. 6.

The action on the steam supply to the air pump of the motions of thethrottle lever just described will evidently be as follows:

lVhen the throttle is closed and the lever in the dotted positionindicated in Fig. 5, the air pump will be supplied with saturated steamfrom pipe 14 which supply can not back up into the pipe 16 as the valve34: closes off the port leading to pipe 16. As soon as the engineerbegins to open the throttle he changes the position of valve 34 to theopposite extreme and from then on superheated steam will be supplied tothe air pump, thesaturated supply being, of course, cut oil by valve 34.This will continue as long; as the throttle remains open.

I have in the above described my invention as used for supplyingsuperheated steam to the engine of the air pump; but,

as stated near the beginning 'of the specifi cation, this is merely bway of exemplification. The same general means can evidently be employedfor supplying super-. heated steam to one or more of the otherauxiliaries mentioned above while the main throttle is open andsupplying saturated steam at other times- If thought desirable, aseparate mechanism can be used for each steam line leading to anauxiliary; but preferably a single control will be used for a supply toall the auxiliaries in which superheated steam is to be employed. Thecontrol employed in either case may be of any of the types describedabovelor their equivalents.

What I claim is: i

1. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of asuper-heater, a pipe supplying it with steam, a throttle control-. lingthe pipe, an auxiliary steam-consuming device, means to supply theauxiliary device with steam from the superheater and automatic means tosupply it with steam from another point than the superheater when thethrottle is closed.

2. In a locomotive having a superheater, a throttle controlled pipesupplying it with steam from the boiler, and an auxiliarysteam-consuming device, the combination of a pipe connected to theauxiliary device,

two conduits supplying it with steam from the superheater and withsaturated steam from the steam space of the boiler respectively, andmeans to shut off automatically the saturated steam supply when thethr0t tle is open and to open it at other times.

3. In a locomotive having a superheater, a main engine, and an auxiliarysteam-consuming device, the combination of a throttle controlleddry-pipe supplying steam to the superheater, a steam pipe connecting thesuperheater to the main engine, a pipe connected to the auxiliarydevice, two conduits connecting said pipe respectively with thesuperheater and with the steam space of the boiler, and means to shutoff the conduit from the steam space in response to pressure in theother conduit.

1 4. In a locomotive having a superheater and an auxiliarysteam-consuming device, the combination of a throttle governed dry pipesupplying steam to the superheater, a pipe leading to the auxiliarydevice, two conduits connecting said pipe, respectively with thesuper-heater and the steam space of the boiler, a pressure controlledgovernor in the second named conduit and means to transmit pressure toit from the first named conduit.

NEAL T. MoKEE.

